Jazz Reissues Boon To Some, Bane To Others

July 18, 1985|By Ken Franckling. United Press International.

The jazz bins in your favorite record store are likely to be peppered with discount-priced albums from days gone by.

A distinctive ``belly band,`` a 3-inch-wide wrapper providing historical perspective or low-pricing information about the record, is a sure sign that this album belongs to a growing category known as reissues.

They are freshly pressed versions of the best jazz albums from the past, often wrapped in the original cover, that take advantage of today`s better sound technology.

Some people are unsure whether they like the reissue concept, which began in Japan two decades ago, because it competes with new artists and small independent labels that operate on shoestring budgets for the same listener dollar.

Some executives see them as a bonus, at a time when jazz remains a minuscule portion of the record sales industry.

``It`s a matter of pure economics. Those companies with enormous catalogues see they can put out stuff with little cost involved. It`s a tough area of the business, with new artists left to the independents. On the other hand, the marketing is different--individual albums versus batches,`` said Bruce Lundvall, president of Manhattan-Blue Note records.

Since January, the revived Blue Note label has reissued 41 classic Blue Note albums from the 1950s and 1960s and issued four previously unreleased gems from its vaults. With the Blue Note reissues, pressed in Europe on virgin vinyl, there is no price cut.

The Fantasy jazz label, based in Berkeley, Calif., now has 210 reissues under its belt.

``We`ve been reissuing jazz since 1971, though not always in the original format. We started with a two-fer format, with a double album or compilations of albums,`` said Fantasy president Ralph Kaffel.

``Reissues have become popular because the direction of jazz has changed quite a bit,`` Kaffel said. ``Miles Davis doesn`t play now like he played in the `50s and `60s--like he played with John Coltrane and Red Garland. There`s a reawakening of interest in artists of the `40s and `50s.``

Fantasy kicked off its Original Jazz Classics series, distinctive by its belly-bands and a $5.98 price, in January, 1983. It has issued about 90 a year since then from the Prestige, Milestone, New Jazz, Riverside, Jazzland, Jazz Workshop, Debut and Fantasy labels.

``Jazz has always been a problem at retail because it is not a priority in a store,`` Kaffel said. ``The potential for a reissue series is more plentiful. The ability to put on digital tape and cut a new master has improved the sound rather than make a phony stereo sound.``

Kaffel said the label has found a broad range of buyers, which it monitors by reply postcards inside each album. The cards have given the label a mailing list of 50,000 buyers.

``They range from people who never heard something and want to buy more, young kids buying jazz records for the first time, to the guy with 6,000 albums who has worn out the originals and is replacing them,`` Kaffel said.

Fantasy`s perennial best seller is ``Monk/Trane,`` recorded in the late 1950s by Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane. Kaffel said other reissues most in demand are by pianist Bill Evans, guitarist Wes Montgomery, the Miles Davis Quartet and Dave Brubeck when Paul Desmond fronted his quartet in the 1950s and `60s.

``There is a hard-core collectors` group looking for rare albums that had little distribution. It is not a high-volume kind of music salability. We`ve tried to maintain continuity,`` Kaffel said.

This year, Fantasy started reissuing more classics from the Contemporary jazz label, a Los Angeles-based label that was founded by late Lester Koenig and, from the `50s through the `70s, documented jazz developments of West Coast artists including Barney Kessel, Red Norvo, Andre Previn, Art Farmer, Benny Golson, Art Pepper and Woody Shaw.

Singer Mel Torme is one artist with mixed feelings about reissues.

``If you are a classic, traditional, one-of-a-kind artist and technology is such that the old pressings were not the greatest, you can put that music out in a more acceptable way,`` Torme said. ``But I wish they wouldn`t release my albums, because I see the defects and would rather leave them where they are. I`m not an ingrate, I know it means they respect me and like me.``